NO Gordon Kerr, director England squash and leading campaigner, debates against the demolition of built sports facilities.

On behalf of the national governing body for squash I lead a team defending threatened sports centres. At present there are 60 sites "on watch" with active campaigns live on about 40 fronts. We do not focus only on squash.

Most threats are from housing development. Most sites are community sports and leisure centres, and most of our adversaries are local authorities, who tend to be driven by political agenda that clouds their obligations to judge matters such as building fitness.

Spin and obfuscation are therefore the predominant tactics employed against us.

The latest truly shocking example is the Sobell Centre in Islington. 10,000 people use it each week and Islington Council (LBI) has decided to demolish it. Barring routine repairs and lifecycle work, nothing significant is wrong with it.

LBI would have the community believe that the building is unfit for purpose and should be condemned, but I know of no architect or building expert who has offered any opinion to justify LBI’s stance. The boilers, roof and flooring could be replaced as part of regular lifecycle maintenance.

England Squash put together an expert team over the summer whose high-end estimates for refurbishment totalled £12 million - a far cry from the £46 million figure cited by LBI to justify denying the community a vote on refurbishment.

LBI simply wants to use half the site for housing. Their figure was derived the figure by analogy with a Scottish swimming pool being rebuilt within its own shell as a training pool for our Olympic swimmers.

The architects included 30 per cent for cost overruns and a further figure for costs inflation of 19 per cent per annum. The prospect of a major contract certainly lured the architects, but they admitted they had never structurally surveyed the Sobell centre and stated that their desktop-costing exercise could not be relied upon.

This embarrassing report was not made public until after the full council had voted to demolish, and then only extracted via Freedom of Information. This conduct is a disgrace and I repeat my call for all Councillors and council staff involved to resign. Jeremy Corbyn MP, Save Sobell campaign leader Barry Hill and I were promised in July a timely copy of the “wheelbarrow” of documents.

LBI say they will squeeze some form of new centre into the 50 per cent of space on the site that will be left after 300 flats have been planned. However there will be nothing there for three years and youth crime, violence, vandalism, lawlessness and social disrespect will flourish. The provision of a sports centre at least brings some hope of greater harmony within the community. All this in the name of LBI’s 2012 Olympic legacy.

Local authorities think about built sports facilities as some schools think about playing fields, as an asset that will not really be missed. England Squash has been lobbying for strengthening of national planning guidance - PPG17.

Expecting a local authority to present an honest demand map of its facilities to justify its decision to demolish a major sports centre is akin to leaving chickens under the protection of the hungriest of foxes.

YES Cllr Ruth Polling, Islington Council’s executive member for leisure and equalities, argues the case for the need to rebuild the Sobell to modern standards.

Like many councils up and down the country we have a problem on our hands: a leisure centre built in the 1970s that is decaying before our eyes. Unlike many councils, we’re prepared to do something about it.

Much loved and much used, the Sobell Centre opened to the public in 1973. Since then it has welcomed thousands upon thousands of users – and that’s taken its toll. The sports centre floor is literally so worn that it can no longer be re-sanded and patched up, the roof is in need of major repairs, and we recently had to replace the aged ice-rink refrigeration system because it was so noisy it was causing a nuisance to nearby residents!

This isn’t the sort of leisure centre we can feel proud of – and it isn’t one fit for the twenty-first century. Islington has a growing population, and we already have unacceptably high levels of heart disease and obesity. To tackle this we have to provide leisure facilities that people want and will use.

I understand the fear that demolishing a leisure centre brings but patching up the Sobell is not a viable solution. Our starting point in this project was to provide modern, fit for purpose leisure facilities for the community that will last for the next 30 to 50 years. Yes, we need new housing, and yes, a better designed leisure centre gives us the space to achieve that. That’s because a modern centre provides more space for sport on a smaller footprint – less space is wasted and overall energy efficiency is improved.

Our plans also give us more and better greenspace by removing some of the wasted car park and, frankly, unappealing landscape that’s currently there.

Building a new centre will cost less than endless expensive refurbishments. We’re not plucking figures out of the air – nor are we throwing cash at a problem in the vain hope that patching it up here and there will make a tired sports centre attractive to tomorrow’s users. All of our costings have been provided by experts with a proven track record. In short, they tell us that far better use can be made of the Sobell centre site.

I can’t speak for other councils but to suggest that we’re eyeing up this sports centre as a saleable asset couldn’t be further from the mark. Islington council has pledged to invest £24 million to create leisure centres that will help young people enjoy sport and develop their talents.

We recognise that leisure needs have moved on since the 1970s. We’ve asked local people and existing leisure centre users what facilities they want and the answer was a gym, a swimming pool, a sports hall and fitness studios. There was also strong support for new community facilities, especially with activities for young people. We certainly won’t be leaving people with nowhere to go and nothing to do in the interim. There’s growing excitement at the prospect of a modern sports centre – particularly amongst young teenagers.

I’m delighted that we will be able to provide a fantastic new leisure centre, new housing and more greenspace. The new Sobell centre will offer much more than its predecessor and, I have no doubt, will be just as dearly loved.